Make username non-case-sensitive

I see that with the new login-system the usernames are case-sensitive.
I don’t see a point in that, suggest to make it non-case-sensitive.
Password should still ble case-sensitive of course

Why? Seems OK as it is.

I agree. It doesn’t make much sense in my opinion to have the username case sensitive. Only thing that should be case sensitive should be the password or any other secrets.

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Everything in computing is case sensitive. Unless you count windows, which doesn’t count.

Ignoring the snarky Windows comment :slight_smile: this is actually not true and in fact computing was largely built on languages that were NOT case sensitive (see, https://www.quora.com/What-programming-languages-are-case-insensitive) :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

All of which probably has no bearing on the OP.

Hi,
I just stumbled across the same issue, as I created a new username “NicoHood” but wanted to login as “nicohood”. It really makes no sense to make the username case sensitive, no online website does this.

Beside that I have problems deleting the “old” account. It looks like it has some admin status, so it can manage other users, but I cannot delete it with the account itself.The new lower case account is not allowed to delete the first one. How can I make it an admin?

Also in the user management the username is not shown at all. Only the alternative name that you also enter, that is shown in the GUI. It is hard to identify usernames then.

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Actually, usernames like B1GBoZZ or SuGGaCh1ccA were quite popular in the late 2000s. At least amongst younger citizens. And those usernames were case sensitive! :laughing:

What I suggest, and that is how I handle it in my programs is: Save the username case sensitive, but check for case insensitive duplicates. In the login form match the username case insensitive. This allows you to display the username in the fancy way, but type it the simple way.

However there is a special display name in home assistant, it seems the username is never used.

In practice…nearly all systems have moved to non-case sensitive user names. It’s the right thing to do for the overall User Experience as HA creeps toward more mainstream adoption. imho.

Logging into Github, Altassian’s Jira, Google account (email…), Microsoft online, Amazon…are all non-case sensitive. (by intentional choice)

In an IDM solutions (ldap, active directory…) have all set the case sensitivity off by default. Yes…it can be flipped back on. This is especially an issue when un/pwd are being passed through – from Atlassian to AD, for example.

Hostnames and email addresses are case sensitive have been flipped to off by default, and able to be switched back on.

Straight linux has UN case sensitivity on by default. Nobody will over overturn the argument that case-sensitive is more secure and the person/committed that flipping it will take on legal liability for the less secure posture. (I’ve been part of these committees on the email issues. Painful.)


Wikipedia –
The Internet standards (Requests for Comments) for protocols mandate that component hostname labels may contain only the ASCII letters ‘a’ through ‘z’ (in a case-insensitive manner), the digits ‘0’ through ‘9’, and the minus sign (’-’). The original specification of hostnames in RFC 952, mandated that labels could not start with a digit or with a minus sign, and must not end with a minus sign. However, a subsequent specification (RFC 1123) permitted hostname labels to start with digits. No other symbols, punctuation characters, or white space are permitted.

The left part of an email address is absolutely case sensitive base on the RFC. In practice, this has been flipped due to public and social norms. Normal people aren’t computer wonks. Supporting evidence…we should all bottom post in email replies…top posting doesn’t make any sense at all…but it’s become the more. (Netscape complied with the business norm at the time (microsoft, ibm profs, cc:mail) of top posting to sell mail into Motorola, outraging the internet community.)